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1. Secret Report: Iran will Have Nuclear Bomb This Year
by Malkah Fleisher
A secret intelligence dossier currently being reviewed by US, Israeli, German, and Austrian governments reveals secret Iranian tests and hierarchies of power dedicated to the successful development of a nuclear bomb, and predicts that Iran will have a primitive nuclear bomb by year's end.
According to the classified document featured in an exposé by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Iran is well on its way toward obtaining its first nuclear bomb. The country's nuclear research program, it turns out, has a military wing answering to the Defense Ministry which the West was not aware of until now.
Der Spiegel explained the structure of Iranian nuclear establishment at length. Iran's new Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, Kamran Daneshjoo, 52, is in charge of the country's nuclear energy agency. A close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Daneshjoo was educated in Manchester, England. He worked for some time at Tehran's "Center for Aviation Technology", which later developed into FEDAT, the "Department for Expanded High-Technology Applications". FEDAT ultimately became what the German paper calls "the secret heart of Iran's nuclear weapons program", answering directly to the Defense Ministry.
FEDAT is currently run by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 48, a professor at Tehran's Imam Hussein University and officer in the Revolutionary Guard. Western intelligence agencies say FEDAT and the Ministry of Science are working together to create the bomb. They also believe that a primitive nuclear weapon the size of a truck will be completed this year.
Two to four years after that, the bomb will be compressed to a size capable of fitting into a nuclear warhead and being launched at Israel.
Iran is believed to have conducted successful tests of a nuclear detonating device 6 years ago.
'Not just Israeli propaganda'
Despite the severity of the situation, the international community is still undecided on sanctions of Iran. China is considered likely to try to block sanctions, as it currently holds billions of dollars in energy deals with the country.
A military option may prove difficult, according to military experts, because many of the Iranian nuclear installations are deep underground.
The report will likely cause the US government to raise its alarm level from yellow to red, according to Der Spiegel. "Skeptics who in the past, sometimes justifiably so, treated alarmist reports as Israeli propaganda, are also extremely worried," including IAEA officials, said the magazine. The report also says, somewhat cryptically, that a laptop computer passed on to the IAEA by way of German and American intelligence agencies contained highly volatile material.
No compromise
Fears of a nuclear Iran have been compounded by information provided by Iran's former deputy defense minister, Ali Reza Asgari, and nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, both of whom defected to the United States and were given new identities.
Iran has consistently stated that its nuclear program is for the peaceful provision of nuclear energy to the country's citizenry.
In October, the IAEA presented a plan to Iran which had been developed by the US government. Under the plan, Iran would send 70% of its low-enriched uranium abroad. A year later, the uranium would be exchanged for fuel rods, a potent form of nuclear fuel which is very difficult to enrich for military purposes.
The plan would have provided sufficient fuel for a nuclear energy program and to fuel the reactor for scientific experiments. At the same time, the world would have been assured that Iran truly had no intention of developing nuclear weapons.
On January 19, Tehran offered a "counter-proposal", effectively rejecting the IAEA plan and casting off illusions of a compromise with the West.
2. Construction Freeze: State Destroys Synagogue
by Hillel Fendel
Special Yassam units have destroyed a synagogue in the Shomron-Binyamin community that was built after the construction freeze was announced.
The Torah scrolls were first removed from the building, and the bulldozers began the destruction shortly afterwards.
Earlier this morning (Tuesday), it was reported that large police forces and special Yassam units had arrived in the Talmonim bloc and prevented entry to the communities of Dolev, Neriah, Talmon, Nachliel and Haresha. They thus wished to prevent residents from arriving en masse to thwart their destruction of a synagogue in Nachliel, said to have been built in violation of the two-month-old construction freeze.
The construction freeze was abruptly imposed on all new Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria by the government to entice the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other government ministers have vowed that the freeze will be removed after ten months.
The destruction of a synagogue, especially in Israel, is considered very serious, in terms of both religious sensitivity and the efforts, in the words of the Knesset Law Committee, to "prevent harm to synagogues around the world."
After the Disengagement/expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005, the government originally planned to destroy the synagogues that remained in Gaza, in order to avoid their desecration by local Arabs. However, even this fear was not considered sufficient reason to destroy those holy sites, and following opposition by rabbis around the country and much debate, the decision was rescinded.
3. Ketzaleh to Religious Zionists: No Rest Until Unity
by Hillel Fendel
MK Yaakov Katz, leader of the National Union party, opened the Religious Zionist Leaders and CEO's Conference in Jeruslem on Tuesday by reiterating the need for “unity in the ranks.” The two parties must not be allowed to "rest for a second in seeking this goal," he said. The conference is the initiative of the "B'Sheva" newspaper, an Arutz Sheva publication in Hebrew with over 100,000 copies distributed free each week in Israel.
Though the religious-Zionist camp has long had two separate parties, the split in the current Knesset is all the more jarring because it followed months of fruitless efforts to join them. Both the National Religious Party and the National Union agreed to disband in order to form the new “Jewish Home” party in late 2008, and an agreed-upon body of 39 leading religious-Zionists was to select the party leader and Knesset candidates.
However, four decisions made in quick succession by the body led the more hawkish members to believe they were being alienated. First came the decision to do away with primaries for the party leader, preferring to choose the leader itself, and then came the decision to choose heretofore-unknown Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkovitz as leader - despite his previous lack of public support for the Gush Katif cause. He also later said that the party MKs would be free to vote as they wish on Land of Israel matters, and shortly afterwards accepted a prize from a Jewish-Arab co-existence organization – thus fanning the flames of National Union distrust.
Next came the decision to name among the top five Knesset candidates journalist Uri Orbach, famous for criticizing road-blockings during the Disengagement protests and what he felt was the extreme right-wing. The final straw was the decision to choose a “top ten” list that did not, in the National Union’s eyes, fairly mirror the balance of power in the outgoing Knesset, in which the NRP had three MKs and the NU - six.
The former National Union MKs then left the Jewish Home, re-created its party, and asked Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) to lead them.
In his speech at today's convention, Ketzaleh named the increasing number of disciplines and fields in which “the pioneers of religious-Zionism are taking a leading role: Torah, education, army, industry, science and social affairs. We are now the backbone of these areas and of Israeli society.”
“The country is begging for high-level leadership in public matters, that which is known as ‘politics,’ and it will come from Torah, belief in Torah scholars, and strong links to the original culture and history of the Nation of Israel,” he said.
“The Nation of Israel’s cry for help, healthy leadership, and foreign relations based on Jewish strength obligates us to ensure that the political forces loyal to these values join together in one framework. The two parties must not be allowed to rest for a second in seeking this goal, and those who oppose the merger must not be allowed to ruin things for all of us. Each party must be able to preserve its uniqueness, but at the same time we must work and organize ourselves in one list for the upcoming elections. The two parties must be forced to march and work together, and just as it works in education and other spheres, it will succeed in politics as well.”
4. Shalit Negotiations Reported to be 'Collapsing'
by Gil Ronen
A deal brokered by Germany to free IDF captive Gilad Shalit is apparently “close to collapse,” according to German magazine Der Spiegel. The magazine says its sources have confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was “shocked by the scope of concessions” agreed to by his representative to the talks, Haggai Hadas, and subsequently withdrew his support for the deal.
Just before the December holiday season, Netanyahu withdrew his agreement on a deal “that had already been struck” and instead presented a new "final offer" to Hamas, the magazine reported. Negotiators from Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachtrichtendienst (BND), had previously relayed an offer from Hadas to Hamas in which Israel agreed to free 1,000 Arab terror prisoners, but wanted to transfer 120 prisoners from Fatah-controlled Judea and Samaria to Gaza or to another country.
The newest offer from Israel, however, rejects many of the Hamas demands, including the release of the more notorious and popular terrorists, and the Germans now believe that the terrorists will reject the Israeli offer. “The back and forth on the prisoner swap has dealt a blow to the BND's reputation,” the magazine adds.
Why is media mum?
In Israel, meanwhile, there has been speculation by nationalist pundits regarding what appears to be a turnabout in the mainstream media's coverage of the Shalit negotiations. The mainstream media had been promoting the deal extremely aggressively for months on end, and coverage of the subject reached a frenzied pitch in December. Suddenly the coverage seems to have gone silent, and there have even been prominent reports that argue against the deal, written by leading reporters.
Uri Elitzur, editor of the nationalist Makor Rishon, speculated that the reason for the 180-degree shift was connected to reports that the Obama Administration had asked Israel not to go forward with the deal, because it would encourage extremists throughout the Middle East. Elitzur opined that Israel's mainstream journalists, who are known to favor Obama, took their cue from him and executed a voluntary about-face. Likud nationalist Moshe Feiglin, writing in Maariv/NRG, quoted and echoed Elitzur.
5. Abbas Rejects Israeli Presence on Eastern Border
by Gil Ronen
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's statement that Israel must maintain a presence in the Jordan valley, a day after Netanyahu made the statement.
Netanyahu had said that the Jewish state must ensure "an efficient way, at the entry and exit points, to stop rockets from being smuggled into the territories close to Israel." This, he said, “will require an Israeli presence on the eastern side of the Palestinian state.”
The PA chairman rejected the idea. “The Palestinian leadership will not accept the presence of a single Israeli soldier in the Palestinian territories after the end of the occupation," Abbas spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP on Thursday.
Netanyahu has long said that any PA state formed under the terms of a future agreement would have to be demilitarized.
'More Obstacles'
"We will not accept anything less than a completely sovereign Palestinian state on all the territories with its own borders, resources and airspace," Abu Rudeina said. “We will not accept any Israeli presence, either military or civilian, on our land, and we will not accept that our state be under Israeli protection," he emphasized.
Abu Rudeina said that Netanyahu's insistence on an Israeli border presence would "place more obstacles in the way of restarting peace talks."
The dispute erupted as US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell made his latest visit to the region. It seemed to push back prospects of restarting negotiations between Israel and the PA. Israel has unilaterally frozen construction of new homes by Jews in Judea and Samaria for a 10-month period in order to coax the PA back into the talks.
The PA said it would not return to negotiations without a complete halt of Jewish settlement growth, including in eastern Jerusalem.
6. Int'l Monetary Fund Praises Bank of Israel
by Hillel Fendel
The International Monetary Fund’s annual report on Israel’s economy has praise for Bank of Israel's Governor Stanley Fischer's policies, but warns that slow world growth could affect Israel.
The Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry released a synopsis of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report on the Israeli economy of 2009. Entitled 2009 Article IV Consultation with Israel, the report notes that Israel adopted “strong policy measures in response to the impact of the global crisis," and that “the resilience of the Israeli economy during the global crisis reflected strong policy responses, robust fundamentals, prudent bank supervision, public debt reduction, and structural reforms in recent years."
"The global outlook remains highly uncertain,” however, according to the IMF, “and the slower medium-term global growth would have adverse implications for Israel’s potential growth rate." Israel must therefore strengthen "long-term anchors in Israel’s policy frameworks to allow a flexible response of policies to short-term developments and to stimulate long-term supply."
The IMF predicts that Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow in 2010 by 2.5%. The Bank of Israel's forecast is 3.5%.
The IMF praised Israel’s steps towards decreasing its intervention in the foreign exchange market and towards increasing interest rates. “Discretionary interventions should be formally terminated,” the IMF directors noted, “for all but the most exceptional market circumstances, once the policy interest rate is well above its effective floor on a sustained basis.”
The IMF praises Israel’s banking system, but called for “comprehensive banking stress tests, regular publication of a financial stability report by the Bank of Israel, and closer coordination among various regulators.”
Governor Fischer announced Monday that the interest rate would remain at 1.25%. Unemployment dropped slightly in the month of December, to 20,500 from 20,600 the month before. The shekel has dropped slightly against the dollar in the past two weeks; after reaching a year-long high of 27.27 cents two weeks ago, it is now down to 26.78 (3.73 shekels to the dollar).
7. IDF, Israel CEOs Start Haitian Orphanage, Israelis Want to Adopt
by Malkah Fleisher
Israeli citizens are hoping to give opportunities for new life to children who have been orphaned by Haiti's January 12 earthquake.
Emergency humanitarian aid group Israel Flying Aid and Orange Israel Telecommunications announced January 25 that they will establish an orphanage to accommodate over 200 children in Haiti. At least 70 children will be taken in immediately. To assist the project, the Israel Defense Forces will create infrastructure for fresh running drinking water, an electric generator, tents, and primary medical supplies.
The orphanage will essentially be a re-creation of one destroyed in the earthquake. CEOs of the two companies visited the ruins of a girls' orphanage in Port-au-Prince to find the children without food and suffering from severe malnutrition. These are the orphans who will benefit first from the new project. They are between the ages of 2 and 14, and will be cared for by Haitian and Israeli volunteers.
"From showers to electricity and computers, from water, food and clothing we will rebuild this orphanage," said Orange Israel CEO David Avner. "As for today we will take a yard and put up tents as it is unsafe for the children to remain in these cracked and unstable buildings."
IFA and Orange Israel will try to raise 1-2 million dollars from Israeli businesses for the project.
Israeli couples yearn to adopt
Yet more Israelis hope to heal the pain in the hearts of Haiti's new orphans through adoption.
At least 30 couples have contacted the Welfare and Social Service Ministry's Adoption Department over the past 10 days hoping to take in children left orphaned by the earthquake.
Israel's Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog has asked his staff to begin looking into the possibility of developing an adoption protocol with Haiti. Israel's envoy to the Dominican Republic and consular official to Haiti, Amos Radian, will submit the official request. International treaties and adoption laws are also being consulted. The potential to bring Haitian orphans to Israel will be clarified within a few weeks.
Herzog told Israel's Army Radio that aside from being a form of humanitarian aid, the adoptions would "bring great joy" to Israeli couples hoping to raise a child of their own.
Subsidizing adoptions
The confirmed death toll in Haiti has topped 150,000 people. Though families are still being reunited as loved ones confirm the whereabouts of their members, it is clear that the amount of children orphaned by this tragedy will be high.
Israel helps prospective adoptive families by subsidizing the cost of international adoptions. Low-income couples yearning for a child receive a 15% discount, which usually translates into a saving of over 17,000 shekels. The children are converted to Judaism upon arrival in specialized rabbinical courts.
Israel is not the only country which has come forward to adopt Haitian children. The United States, Spain, and the Netherlands have also submitted adoption requests.
